Rex Murphy leaves the Globe and Mail, according to Peter Mansbridge

Last July, I jotted down five ideas for how the Globe and Mail's new editor-in-chief, John Stackhouse, could improve his paper.

The first thing I wrote was "Less Rex Murphy, please". I was tired of reading Murphy's skepticism about the reality of climate change--a viewpoint we hear enough of in the National Post and other Canwest newspapers as well as on private radio stations.

This week, I was delighted to hear the CBC's chief correspondent, Peter Mansbridge, announce on the national news that Murphy will be writing his columns in the future for the National Post. It means no more Murphy on the opinion page of the Saturday Globe and Mail.

I don't know if Murphy jumped or if he was pushed by Stackhouse. Regardless, I'm looking forward to picking up a Saturday Globe and Mail without one of Murphy's typically ill-informed attacks on climate-change scientists.

I'll close with one scary thought. One of the five vacant seats in the Senate is for Newfoundland and Labrador. There are currently 49 Liberals, 46 Conservatives, two Progressive Conservatives and three others in the Senate.

If Harper fills all five vacancies with Conservatives, he will have a narrow majority in the upper house with the support of the two Progressive Conservatives.

And who best to represent Newfoundland and Labrador in the Senate than Murphy, a confirmed skeptic on climate change?

He has lost three provincial campaigns--once as a Tory and twice as a Liberal. That alone makes him a prime prospect for the chamber of sober, second thought.

In the 1980s, Murphy also worked for a former Liberal premier, Clyde Wells.

By appointing Murphy, Harper could burnish his credentials as a supposed centrist and win some votes from CBC viewers and listeners.

There's one other benefit: Harper would have a high-profile Newfoundlander who could serve as his attack dog against Premier Danny Williams.

Harper could also rest assured that this newest senator from Newfoundland and Labrador wouldn't create any problems for the Alberta oil and gas industry.

Of course, Murphy hasn't always been so fond of the Senate. Last August, he described it in a Globe and Mailcolumn as "the ultimate patronage ATM", adding that "it extorts subservience and sycophancy from those appointed to it."

"It does not have second thoughts," Murphy declared. "A second thought would kill it."

But the public and the media have short memories. No doubt, all the other media hacks who've been appointed to the Senate have uttered their own criticisms of the upper chamber in the past, and it didn't stop prime ministers from presenting them with the ultimate retirement gift.

Besides, with Canwest Publishing going into bankruptcy protection, Murphy can't count on a great deal of job security as a National Post newspaper columnist.

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63 Comments

Gazza

Jan 9, 2010 at 4:26am

Charlie.

Rex Murphy is very informed about climate change. It is the main stream media that is yet to do proper investigative reporting on this sordid topic. I assume the G&M could not handle the reality, having drunk Al Gore coolaid along with most of the other media outlets. It's hard to climb down from such a position once you have taken it. But this year will show people like Rex to be correct in their skepticism of the "science".

Meme Mine

Jan 9, 2010 at 4:51am

Newspaper editors and David Nutzuki will be charged by the Canadian Courts for their failed attempt to lead us to a false WMD like war against a false enemy of climate variation, er change.Lockem UP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Ensign Deadmeat

Jan 9, 2010 at 11:21am

It's a sad day when climate skepticism is labeled "denial". Murphy is an intellectual giant compared to the mediocrities who are unable to read a Nature paper without a tutor and translator. The spoon-fed nature of most science writing is a disgrace. Without tackling climate change head on Dan Gardner wrote tellingly why we can't trust advocacy based press and the advocates who treat them like muppets.

MT

John W.

Jan 9, 2010 at 11:40am

Agree completely. How cab a major national newspaper continue with a columnist who simply picks the easiest most vulnerable target of the weak and then piles on with the most grossly affected writing style in Canadian journalism. Devoid of any original insights week after week.

John Curtis

Onager

I lost a lot of respect for Rex Murphy when I heard him mope on about how the big "email scandal" supposedly canceled out the life's work of thousands of scientists all over the world.

He alleged that, according to these emails, somebody had somehow deleted forever a huge climate dataset, as if all the world's climate data was entrusted to one person's USB memory stick. It shocked me that he could be so obtuse as to believe that, or he could believe that his audience would believe that.

I defer to him on English literature and arcane lexicography, but after this shining moment, I'll never think of him as any kind of scientist or eminent thinker beyond his narrow purview.